Blue Enamels:



Blue Enamel Recipes with Workflow:





<p011r_1>: How to paint azure enamel



This is a secret hardly known to common painters. Some take the finest they can and grind it with some ceruse, which binds it, and then prick with an awl in several places the areas they want to paint with azure enamel, so that the oil soaks into it in drops, not allowing the azure, which alone is heavy, to run. Others lay the painting flat and apply the azure and that can be also soaked. The most important is to grind it well on marble, and before that, to have rinsed it. Some grind it thoroughly with an egg yolk and then rinse it five or six times and apply it not with a paint brush, which would be too soft, but with a brush highly softened and curled, and laying it down thickly as if you were applying it with a trowel, it settles even and flat. I experimented [and found] that grinding azur enamel with egg yolk and then rinsing it in water is good. However it does lose a little vividness when ground. I also rinsed it successively in water and, after letting it stand, I extracted some blue water with a sponge and pressed it into another vessel where it was left to stand, and from the residue I obtained the dust, flower and finest part of the azure without grinding it, which is the best way, because it loses some of its color when ground. Those who make it in Germany compose it like enamel, in large pieces which they pound, pass through several sieves and rinse.







To make azures beautiful, they wash them or soak them in rock water, as they call it, which is water distilled from mines where azure or vert d’azur is found, either distilled naturally through the mountain’s veins or distilled with an alembic from azure or copper mineral stones.







Azure dust is not good for landscapes because it fades with oil. Only true azure holds. Azure enamel cannot be worked if it is too thick. Therefore, try it on your fingernail or your oil [color] palette. If it is sandy, grind it only with egg yolk or, even better, rinse it in clear water and with a sponge extract the colored water after it starts to sink, and in this way you will extract the finest flower, which will be easy to work with.



Materials Needed:



Azurite

Ceruse

Egg yolk

Water

“Rock water”



Marble slab

Brushes

Sponge

Sieve

Surface to test pigment on



Safety considerations:



Ceruse is lead carbonate hydroxide, and must be worked with carefully:





Common Name: Lead White (appears in recipes as “ceruse”; “white ground in oil”)

Chemical name: Lead Carbonate Hydroxide/(Basic Lead Carbonate)

Chemical formula: C2H2O8Pb3

Melting point: 315° C

Hazard statements from MSDS:


Safety Precautions:


Disposal and cleanup:


Experiment protocol:



Begin by making sure all work surfaces are covered in newspaper and all group members are wearing appropriate personal safety gear (gloves, lab coat). Set up work station with marble slab & muller, and all materials. Proceed with the instructions given in recipe, testing various ratios of egg yolk, oils, and azurite, and testing the author’s methods for applying the pigment (through an awl if paint surface is vertical; painted carefully directly onto surface if surface is horizontal.) Be sure to take photos and record field notes during experimentation.



Clean up: After experimentation, make sure to dispose of newspaper, gloves, and any other disposable contaminated materials in solid waste bin labeled with lead. Make sure to wash brushes and surfaces in contact with oil in accordance with lab protocols for oil-based materials.





<p059r_2>: Azure (2, 5, 6, 7)



Azure is more beautiful when on the painting it has soaked up some nut oil with which it has been firstly thinned without any aspic oil. If you want to know whether it is dry, breathe on it and it will not shine and will seem to be very soaked up, otherwise it will shine.



Soaked-with-oil azure d’email leaves it and comes back to its first natural state if you dip it in some water



Colors for small scale works have to be very strongly ground and to be worked with a brush point if you want your work to be very fine







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The varnish is more beautiful on a painting when the color has been completely soaked up



Materials Needed:



Azurite

Nut oil

Water



Fine brush

Surface to test pigment on



Experiment protocol:



Set up work station with azurite powder, nut oil, oil brushes, and glass plate. Make sure to use brushes & surfaces reserved for use with oil. Be sure to document experimentation with photos and field notes throughout process. After experimentation, make sure to wash brushes and surfaces in contact with oil with appropriate method.





<p061v_3>: Azure enamel with oil (2, 4, 5, 7)







One must choose the finest possible, for if it is coarse one cannot work in oil. And if you cannot find any that is fine enough, you may as well grind it, not with water but with oil, and grind it thick. Then lay it on your palette and mix in some turpentine but not much, to make it bind, and make it as thick as butter or mortar, and then with a large enough brush work it while always twirling the brush. Then, to soften it, make jagged hatching movements with the tip of the brush. The highlights will be made using the same diluted with ceruse, which makes it bind, making it easier to work. I have seen it used thus. It must be very thick, so that you almost need an effort to spread it with your brush. And it will be all the better if you lay down your painting. All these difficulties do not occur when it is very fine and fluid without being crushed, and it doesn’t run.







Azure needs to be applied neatly, which is why it always fades when it is applied over old, already tarnished, azure to mend an old painting. In such cases, it is better to scrape off the old layer and prime again and then apply the azure. It is the same for almost all other colors. Also azure mixed with oil always remains shiny, which is not good for azure because that makes it fade.



Materials Needed:



Azurite powder

Oil

Turpentine

Ceruse



Palette

Brush



Safety Protocol:



Turpentine:



Name: Turpentine

Chemical formula: C10H16

Boiling point: 118° C

Hazard statement from MSDS:


Safety precautions & disposal:


Ceruse:



Common Name: Lead White (appears in recipes as “ceruse”; “white ground in oil”)

Chemical name: Lead Carbonate Hydroxide/(Basic Lead Carbonate)

Chemical formula: C2H2O8Pb3

Melting point: 315° C

Hazard statements from MSDS:


Safety Precautions:


Disposal and cleanup:




Experiment protocol:



Begin by making sure all work surfaces are covered in newspaper and all group members are wearing appropriate personal safety gear (gloves, lab coat). Set up workstation with all materials. Store turpentine in fume hood whenever possible, and be careful with handling and storage. Be sure to take photos and record field notes during experimentation.



Clean up: After experimentation, make sure to dispose of newspaper, gloves, and any other disposable contaminated materials in solid waste bin labeled with lead. Dispose of turpentine according to lab guidelines (consult with Bella). Make sure to wash brushes and surfaces in contact with oil in accordance with lab protocols for oil-based materials.





<p093v>: Azure



Azure enamel always requires washing because the impurities found in the wastewater would make it fade. It should always be applied twice, at first very thickly, moving the brush so as to lay it first lengthwise and then across. It is better used on canvas, which absorbs it immediately, than on wood. Varnish restores its brightness, because once absorbed it becomes dark. In order to test it, painters bring their palettes to the grocer’s and distemper and mix it with a little white ground in oil, for in this manner the good one appears typically bright blue, while the bad one is lavender grey. The thinner one is best to work with. It is refined by washing.



Materials Needed:



Azure enamel (as made in other recipes?)

Varnish

Distemper

White ground in oil (Lead white ground)



Canvas

Wood panel (optional, to test differences in absorption that author describes)





Safety Protocol:



Lead White:



Common Name: Lead White (appears in recipes as “ceruse”; “white ground in oil”)

Chemical name: Lead Carbonate Hydroxide/(Basic Lead Carbonate)

Chemical formula: C2H2O8Pb3

Melting point: 315° C

Hazard statements from MSDS:


Safety Precautions:


Disposal and cleanup:


Varnish:

Name: Varnish

We plan to use varnishes produced by another working group. Properties of specific varnish recipes/ingredients will vary. Once varnishes are produced, we will make note of all safety precautions and protocols.

Experiment Protocol:

Begin by making sure all work surfaces are covered in newspaper and all group members are wearing appropriate personal safety gear (gloves, lab coat). Set up workstation with all materials. Be sure to take photos and record field notes during experimentation.



Clean up: After experimentation, make sure to dispose of newspaper, gloves, and any other disposable contaminated materials in solid waste bin labeled with lead. Make sure to wash brushes and surfaces in contact with oil in accordance with lab protocols for oil-based materials.




Red Enamel, specifically rouge clair enamel




Red Enamel, specifically rouge clair enamel


Related recipes (p040v_01 Cross of the commanders of Malta; p124v Rouge clair enamel; p104r Enameling a Carnelian; p006r_1 To lay down and set burnished gold and red or green or blue)

Focus: Rouge clair enamel, an excellent enamel (made of gold, quick-silver, and the spirit of copper) which will not settle on any thing but gold (Randle Cotgrave)

Ingredients
Red enamel on silver (p040v_01)

1. Dragon’s blood:
A red resin (p. 159, Artists' pigments: a handbook of their history and characteristics, Ashok Roy, Cambridge University Press, 1993)
Sourcing: Starwest Botanicals produced
__http://www.bulkapothecary.com/product/make-it/wine-making/herbs-spices/dragons-blood/?gclid=Cj0KEQjwlLm3BRDjnML3h9ic_vkBEiQABa5oeRdv342RdRPqMW9OKiphQsz_aSmox7Vy3xNGyYcqWeYaAlWQ8P8HAQ__

Safety protocols: wearing latex gloves and goggles
2. Eau de vie or Indian laque plate:
Eau de vie: According to Lexilogos, eau de vie means “Boisson alcoolisée obtenue par distillation du vin, du jus fermenté de certains fruits ou de substances alimentaires.Synon. pop. gnôle, goutte; arg. blanche, eau-d'aff(e).Le degré et le velouté de l'eau-de-vie de framboise.”
Sourcing: a brandy made by fermented fruit (not grapes, transparent), maybe at the alcohol shop?
Indian laque plate: haven’t figured out what it is
3. Clear turpentine and mastic drops (our lab has both)
Safety protocols: Latex gloves and goggles (eye protection) when working with turpentine and mastic
4. Thick silver leaf--“not the one used by painters but a thicker one, which is burnished by the makers of foil backings for gemstones or by goldsmiths”
Sourcing: our lab has the silver leaf. Is that thick enough?



Procedures:

  1. Soak fine dragon’s blood with eau de vie
  2. Mix clear turpentine and mastic drops to the mixture of step 1
  3. Apply the whole mixture on a thick silver leaf







Red enamel on gold (p006r_1)

1. Venice lake: red lakes laid on alum distinguished by Watin (1785) (Pigment Compendium: A Dictionary of Historical Pigments by Nicholas Eastaugh, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall); also in Kirby

Sourcing: madder lake pigment (lab), alum (lab)

Safety protocols: latex gloves and goggles

2. Walnut or linseed oil (lab)

Safety protocols: safe

3. Turpentine varnish or spike lavender varnish

Sourcing: what is varnish in nature? Are they the same as turpentine oil and spike lavender oil (our lab has both)?

Safety protocols: Latex gloves; Goggles (eye protection)

Procedures:

  1. Make venice lake
  2. Grind venice lake on the marble with some walnut oil or linseed oil
  3. Mix some turpentine varnish or spike lavender varnish
  4. Apply the mixture on gold (do not use brush on gold: brail wood and laque ronde fade away?)

Temperature:

Around 1000 degrees Celsius？(“different temperatures necessary for the varuous colors and layers (Limoges Enamels at the Frick Collection, by Ian Wardropper with Julia Day, p. 10).” But I haven’t found the exact temperature for red enamel)

Red enamel with different metals:

1. On alloyed gold (such escu or pistolet coins) in p124v: “heat it again after being cut to make it reddish” and put gold grains in it (does that refer to paillions, pieces of silver or gold foil?). But it does not write down the ingredient for rouge clair enamel in this case.
2. On burnished/matte gold (p006r_1): white enamel needed as a base
3. On thick silver leaf (p040v_01)
Questions: How about copper? How does rouge clair enamel work on copper?

Other questions: different enameling techniques over gold? (Champlevé, basse-taille, email-peint technique, etc.)

Recipes for making white enamels: p006r_1?


HYACINTH (JACINTHE)

Recipes in MS: <p101v> Hyacinth
It is made, like rubies, with gold; but without such intense heat. Rubies need to be heated for a whole day, and if it does not have heat for long enough, you will obtain only reddened varnish.
Always heat up your crucibles.
It is believed that rubified antimony makes hyacinth.

Focus: there are 2 methods described 1) following the procedure for Ruby but with less heat; 2) possibly trying to rubify antimony though he merely says some people thing that it is rubified antimony

Materials:

Safety:
gloves and goggles should be worn, and a flame retardant lab coat if possible, if the non-resinous form of minium is used it should not be washed down the sink but wiped and put into solid hazardous waste stream and one should be wearing a dust mask and working inside a fumehood

Considerations:
- what does it mean to rubify antimony? merely to heat it so see if it will change color? or does it mean antimony is an ingredient in the ruby making?
-less intense heat than rubies, but requires a long enough heating period that it is not merely a varnish-->does this refer to allowing for enough evaporation time to pass so that most of the water content will be cooked out and it will congeal?
-note that the ruby group last time used red lead as their minium. should we follow, or swap out for mercuric sulphide or dragon's blood resin?

Methods:
3 trials with different substitute for minium each time:
-measure out and mull quartz powder until fine ground (approx 10 min.) then measure and add red lead/mercuric sulfide/or dragon's blood to it and mull until fine (approx. 10 min), finally add saltpeter and do the same
-transfer mixture to crucible, add gold leaf
-heat to 1000-1200 C
-pour out some of the result at 4 minutes and the rest at 7 minutes for each trial

Sapphire
-taffre (?)
-very clear azure enamel
-antique glass (bevel cut)
-old azure enamel
-aquamarines (imitated with white glass)